A bomb hidden inside a motorcycle exploded in front of the offices of a Muslim scholars committee in Arsal, the official National News Agency said.

The Sunni clerics are believed to have been trying to negotiate the release of Lebanese security personnel held by jihadist militants based in Syria.

BBC reports that Arsal was the scene of fierce fighting between the two sides last year: The Sunni town, which hosts many Syrian refugees, is divided between Syrian government-held territory and mainly Shia Lebanese areas.

The Lebanese army has not been able to access much of Arsal’s interior, which is occupied by armed groups affiliated with the Syrian opposition.

Over the last two years, in areas up and down the border, including Arsal, the army has clashed with ISIL, Nusra Front and other Syrian opposition groups seeking to expand into Lebanon.

Al-Jazeera’s reporting claims that the Lebanese army faces ISIL (ISIS) in several mountainous areas along the Syrian border and Nusra Front in others.

Since the beginning of the Syrian crisis, Lebanon has experienced periodic bouts of spillover violence.In areas such as Tripoli, sectarian rivalries have given way to periodic bloodshed as tensions over Syria soared.

In the Ain al-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp, groups with connections to Syrian opposition forces have launched a campaign of assassinations against local Palestinian political leaders and have clashed with Palestinian armed factions in the camp.

The Lebanese Communist Party established its armed wing in June, after ISIL fighters attacked military posts controlled by Hezbollah, which has been fighting alongside the Syrian government. Clashes in June killed 22 people, including Hezbollah and ISIL fighters.

In 2014, a Christian armed group was created in Ras Baalbek to patrol the village and its surrounding area.In other areas, in eastern and southern Lebanon, the Resistance Brigades, a Hezbollah-backed group, serves a similar function.